They always threatened to do this, you know, if things got too confined, the landscape too cluttered.

If everything wasn’t what they wanted.

And now here we are, one monumental decision made that has taken what was once a pipe dream and shoved it squarely in the middle of reality.

They’ve taken their ball and gone home to start a new brand of football.

“All along,” said one BCS athletic director, “it was unavoidable.”

This is how utterly unpredictable college football has become: one day, Florida State to the Big 12 looks laughable. The next, it’s imminent.

One day, Notre Dame is bathing in its longstanding, never-wavering independent status. The next, it has no choice but to jump in the deep end of change.

The SEC and Big 12 announced a bowl partnership Friday, one that never more clearly defined the haves and have-nots of college football. If you’re not part of the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten or Pac-12, you’re on the outside with your face pressed against the big-boy glass.

The handful of powerful BCS teams remaining now have a clear decision to make: Join one of the four major conferences, or get shut out of the future of the game.

By partnering in the “Champions Bowl”—the SEC and Big 12 will send their conference champion or highest-ranked non-playoff team to the game—the top two conferences in college football started unthinkable change:

— Although specifics weren’t released Friday, a source close to the process said the new bowl will have a stand-alone television deal, much like the Rose Bowl.

The goal is to bid the game to select cities—New Orleans, Dallas and Atlanta are top potential sites—and negotiate a television deal separate from current bowl agreements.

“Think of it as a conference championship game—without the championship on the line,” a source said. “The revenue potential is unthinkable.”

— By adding the game, the SEC and Big 12 further narrowed the scope of major teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Years ago, during the height of BCS controversy and criticism over the way polls were used, a handful of administrators floated the idea of taking the top 50-60 teams and breaking away from the NCAA to form their own league with their own rules.

That’s essentially what is happening with this groundbreaking move by the SEC and Big 12. This game, and the potential revenue it will bring, will force the elite of the ACC to rethink current conference partnerships, and the Irish to seriously debate their independent status.

— More expansion is on the horizon. Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech and Clemson would be attractive to the Big 12, as would Notre Dame. The Big 12, according to a source, wants to get back to 12 teams and revive the Big 12 championship game for revenue and recruiting purposes.

If the ACC loses one or more of its major teams in expansion—the Big 12 has a provision in its current television deal that allows for renegotiation—it will be mortally wounded and of little consequence in a likely committee vote-based four-team playoff coming in 2014.

— The Delany Plan will be the choice for the new four-team playoff. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott favor a playoff that emphasizes conference champions. SEC commissioner Mike Slive wants the best four teams, and it is believed that the Big 12 will go along with the SEC in that argument.

But to keep the process open to all—at least, on the surface—the playoff must use the Delany Plan: Conference champions within the top five or six of the rankings are eligible for the new playoff. A best-four teams playoff all but eliminates anyone outside the Big Four conferences and invites anti-trust lawsuits.

Two weeks ago, at a suburban Chicago restaurant, Delany said college football was heading toward “fundamental” and “significant” change.